Tutorials

Welcome to App Inventor's official tutorials!

Below is a list of tutorials to help you learn about App Inventor and its various components. You can use use the filter below to sort through tutorial topics by simply checking the appropriate boxes and clicking "Filter". To restore the default sorting, click "Reset".


Tutorialsort descending Level
AlertMe

AlertMe app receives text messages (Texting component, and notifies the user even when the app is not currently running. If the app is running (visible on the screen), when it receives an SMS, the message will be displayed on the screen. If it's not running, the user will receive a Notification in the status bar, which can be viewed by pulling down the status bar.

Advanced
Android, Where's My Car

You parked somewhere near the stadium or bar, but when the concert/party ends you don't have a clue where the car is. The friends you came with are equally as clueless. Fortunately you haven't lost your Android phone that never forgets anything, and you remember you have the hot new app, Android, Where's My Car?. With this app, you click a button when you park your car, and the Android uses its location sensor to record the car's GPS coordinates and address. Later, when you reopen the app, it shows you a map from where you are to the remembered location-- problem solved! With this tutorial you'll be able to download a created app and then study the annotated blocks below to better understand the app and App Inventor programming in general.

Advanced
Broadcast Hub

In this tutorial, you'll write an app that automatically responds to texts messages and broadcasts texts messages it receives to a list of phone numbers.The app is inspired by FrontLineSMS, a tool that has been used in developing countries to monitor elections, broadcast weather changes, and in general connect people that don't have access to the web but do have phones and mobile connectivity.

Advanced
Colored Dots

Colored Dots is a simple painting program that uses a second screen to select the paint colors. This tutorial serves as an introduction to creating apps that have multiple screens.

Advanced
Get the Gold

By building the Get The Gold App you will get practice with setting visibility, using Clock components and Timers, and detecting collisions in App Inventor. You'll program an application that has a pirate ship whose goal is to collect all the gold on the screen.

Advanced
Get the Gold for App Inventor 2

By building the Get The Gold App you will get practice with setting visibility, using Clock components and Timers, and detecting collisions in App Inventor. You'll program an application that has a pirate ship whose goal is to collect all the gold on the screen.

Advanced
Google Voice for Texting over Wifi

This guide shows you how to set up a Google Voice account so that your wifi-only device can send and receive texts. The App Inventor texting component is capable of interfacing with Google Voice so that you can create apps that make it possible to text without a phone carrier.

Advanced
Hello Purr

Hello Purr is the Hello World tutorial for App Inventor. This simple exercise takes you through the very basics of App Inventor, and should be the first app you build.

Basic
Hello Purr for App Inventor 2

Hello Purr is the Hello World tutorial for App Inventor. This simple exercise takes you through the very basics of App Inventor, and should be the first app you build. This version of the tutorial is for use with App Inventor 2.

Basic
Magic 8-Ball

This introductory module will guide you through building a “Magic 8-Ball” app with App Inventor. When activated, your 8-ball will deliver one of its classic predictions, such as “It is decidedly so” or “Reply hazy, try again.” At first you activate the 8-Ball by clicking a button. If you are using a device (rather than the emulator) you can add in an accelerometer component so that the 8-Ball makes a new prediction whenever the device is shaken. Note: This tutorial can be used in place of Hello Purr since it initially has the same functionality, and then goes on to the extend that functionality.

Basic

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